Is Silicon Valley still relevant? Join the conversation

A growing chorus of critics argue that Silicon Valley has become irrelevant as a far as silicon technology is concerned. These critics say that the semiconductor industry's foundation has largely picked up and moved to Asia, never to return.

Others, especially silicon device designers and manufactureres still based in Silicon Valley, say reports of their death are greatly exaggerated. One defender of Silicon Valley's continuing relevance is Ralph Schmitt, CEO of PLX Technology, an I/O interconnect device developer based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

In an EE Times op-ed, Schmitt dismisses the naysayers: "Market-making innovation abounds at the device level right here. We are not yet done building wonderful castles of sand," Schmitt asserts.

Is Schmitt whistling past the graveyard, or is there still another round of innovation left in the device companies in Silicon Valley? Let us know what you think.

I lived in SJ from 91 to 93 during the recession of 1993. Everyone that mattered and a lot of little guys were there too. It was a tech utopia. But nothing lasts forever. That recession put a deep crack in the valley. The area I was in was full when I started with a hundred large builds full of tech companies. By 1993, it was a ghost town. Even the deli closed up shop. My compny was one of the last to go. Even the big guys closed down. IBM shutdown their mainframe manufacturing in South San Jose firing 30,000 workers. Each recession puts a deep crack in the valley. This one may be the biggest, put it's still not broken. It is relevant and important to the US and California as a world class tech leader and innovator.

Silicon Valley will remain relevant as a global center for technology, not as a center itself. More of the human resources and creative facilities are being globalized but the capital and face-to-face encounters (an old model but still in use for VC's and execs) will occur there, as it still does for finance on Wall Street in the US and the City of London, UK. Silicon Valley has actually been replicated but in miniature, in many small hubs around the world. But unlike in finance, Silicon Valley remains the sole *paramount* hub in technology; there is no Wall Street versus The City comparison analogy here, yet.

The Silicon Valley may have begun as a hub of the semi-conductor industry, but it has grown into an ideal. The Silicon Valley represents innovation, deliberation, and cultivation. Ideas are rarely turned down as being too "out there". The Silicon Valley did bring about a 'Global Village' as "Student_Ma" so aptly phrased it. It brought the entire world together in a Utopia of thought and innovation. Everyone was accepted, everyone was encouraged to be unique and develop outlandish concepts. The Silicon Valley has inspired more action than anything before it, there are "Lessons Learned from the Silicon Valley" that have been implemented in high growth, high tech Europe. The Silicon Alley, the Silicon Republic, the Silicon Canal have nothing to do with the creation of semi-conductors, and everything to do with innovative thinking and creation. The Silicon Valley is the embodiment of the American Dream and has no expiration date...even if the silicon runs out.

I started my career in the semiconductor industry in Silicon valley in 1980. back then it really was at the center of the semiconductor universe. I believe that all of the ingredients for success are still there, but they are also present in several other places in the world - and most of those other places are in Asia.

A list of the most promising 60 EE startups that EETimes itself publishes is telling of Silicon Valley's influence even today. The vast majority are still based in the Santa Clara valley. Small companies were always fabless... Large companies also manufacture more overseas. Silicon valley brought about the global village... we live in a much smaller world than 20 years ago. Silicon valley itself is a global village of the smartest minds in the field. It is still relevant in my opinion.